HC comes to the aid of PG doctors

vacation judge g r swaminathan granted the relief while allowing a writ petition filed jointly by dr s giridharan and 24 others, recently (may 13).the petitioners are qualified doctors, who had obtained post-graduate degrees in the respective colleges during 2018-2021.at the time of admission, they had undertaken to serve in government hospitals for two years. to this effect, they had also executed bonds. after they successfully completed their pg courses in may 2021, they were called upon to do covid-19 duty. they worked on a temporary and contractual basis for about 10 months. thereafter, they were relieved. they were not issued with any fresh posting orders. they wrote to the authorities  demanding return of their original certificates. but the colleges refused to oblige on the ground that since the petitioners had not served for a full period of two years as per the bond terms and conditions, the original certificates could not be returned. hence, the present writ petition.the judge pointed out that when a batch of similarly placed candidates had moved the high court with the same prayer, the director of medical education had issued an order on april 21 this year instructing the respective government medical colleges to return the original certificates to the candidates.however, the special government pleader (sgp) contended that the said order cannot be cited as a precedent."while i do sustain the said stand of the sgp, still in my view, the writ petitioners are entitled to the relief for two reasons," the judge said. firstly, it is well settled that an educational certificate is not a marketable commodity, therefore, there cannot be exercise of any lien in terms of the indian contract act. moreover, it had been held in the catena of cases that the managements cannot retain the certificates of the students. secondly, the appellants in  the earlier case, were identically placed. they were classmates of the writ petitioners herein. "therefore, a different yardstick cannot be adopted in the present case. that shall be a gross violation. a statutory authority will have to treat similarly placed persons in the same manner. failure to do so would be an infraction of article 14 of the constitution, the judge said and allowed the petition. he directed the colleges to return the original certificates to the petitioners within 15 days.